A land of desolation no longer

After a year and a half of living in this house we finally decided it was time to do something about our backyard. I suppose you could say I accepted the fact that we might be here for a while, and I got tired of the endless dirt and rock that inevitably ended up inside the house. So, we looked around for a landscape company that would actually come all the way out here and got the ball rolling. Fast forward a few weeks and we're dealing with a contractor with questionable licensing/criminal history, a builder with some sort of bitter vendetta, calls from a licensing investigator, random strangers covertly taking pictures of our backyard, and elevated blood pressure (mine). So, eventually it was just too much, and the landscape people had to go. Luckily by that point they had done the worst of the work, putting sprinklers into our granite-like yard. We figured the rest of it we could do ourselves and hopefully save a little money. And then we came up with a brilliant idea that was motivated by the fact that we didn't want to do all that work ourselves. My brother Ben recently graduated from BYU with a degree in Construction Management, which as we all know is not the best major to have at the moment. He hasn't been able to find a job yet, which worked out excellently to our advantage. We hired him to be our yard laborer. A little bit of sod, 20 tons of rock, a little lumber, and a lot of sweat, and we have a yard! There is a whole lot of rock, which is just the way it is in Arizona. But, we have a little patch of grass that Mitchell and Anja love. We're still in the process of getting some plants and such put in. I can't tell you how nice it is to look out the window and see something green. Ben did a great job, we're lucky to have such talent in the family. Here's a few pictures of our adventure.
The before shot:

The workers:


A much needed break:

Ben's building skills:

A satisfied customer:

Lest I overload you with pictures, I'll post some better after pictures later. We're now essentially penniless, but we're really enjoying having a yard! Thanks Ben!